"Her Majesty, we are coming up on the facility in five minutes," someone out of Kira's field of view said.
"Good, Scotty. That gives us time to figure out what our young friend here was doing on my ship." Elle slapped Kira again and then seemed to lose her temper. As if something had snapped in the terrorist's mind, the slap acted like a final snowflake that triggered an avalanche of violence. Ahmi commenced to beating Kira in the face with her fists and cursing at her. The leather in the maniac's glove cut into Kira's nose, ears, and chin and left her face battered and bloodied. Kira was afraid that she would lose consciousness if the beating lasted much longer.
A few seconds of the crazed frenzy, and Ahmi stopped at the edge of Kira's limitations. The terrorist must have been a pro at torture, for she knew just when to stop before she rendered Kira useless. There was a splatter of blood on Ahmi's leather gloves that she licked away with almost sexual excitement. A doctor, or what Kira assumed was a doctor, entered the room beside Ahmi. He leaned over Kira and checked her vitals with a scanner and then held some sort of wireless sensor over her head.
"She has an AIC," the doctor said.
Allison?
Don't worry, we're good.
Oh God, we are so fucked!
Stay calm. Don't stop thinking. There has to be a way out of this. In the meantime, put your mind somewhere else. Let's keep going through the data we got today. Maybe something there will buy us some time.
Good idea.
Kira did her best to ignore the doctor's pokes and prods and Ahmi's nonstop questioning followed by more violent frenzies. The Scotty fellow stayed quiet mostly and only interjected here and there.
"What were you doing on my ship?" Ahmi asked again, and slapped her across the face another time.
"She's not talking, Scotty. Suggestions?"
"It can't be a coincidence? Can it?" Scotty said. He leaned against the bulkhead and put his hands in his pockets. "We haven't seen a spy in years, and now, on the day of one of our best moves, she shows up."
"She's been here all along according to the Tangier records. Remind me to tax the hell out of Elise when we get back. Somebody should hang for this. Literally." Ahmi pounded her fist against her open palm, causing the leather to slap together loudly.
What about today? Allison?
Well, the Phlegra is scheduled for a trip back to Sol, right?
Yes, so? Apparently, ships go back and forth to that Oort Cloud base all the time.
Remember the manifest? Nothing goes to this ship after today.
Hey . . .
"What tho thpecial bout today," Kira managed through swollen busted lips. She licked at them and swallowed blood.
"Ha ha, the nerve," Ahmi turned back to her. "I'm the one asking questions here."
"Since you have to kill her anyway . . ." Scotty shrugged.
"Today, we are going to fix an election." Ahmi stood straight and looked deeper into Kira's swollen eyes. "So that is why you have to tell us what you know and who you have told."
An election?
Presidential election is Tuesday, Allison answered.
Why?
Who knows, she's crazy as a fucking fruit bat.
Wait, how would they fix an election? Kira had studied Ahmi for years now. She never did anything haphazard. This would be a well- managed and thought-out scheme. How would we fix the presidential election?
Let me think. It looks tight. President Moore is likely to lose if he doesn't take Florida and Luna City. The Democrat nominee Senator Webb might even win the popular vote, but without the electoral votes from the Moon, she can't win.
So that's it! The Moon is the common factor for both candidates. She's gonna do something to Luna City.
Like what?
I dunno, what is her standard MO?
Well, during the Desert Campaigns, she had kamikaze AI-driven fighters fly into the front lines until the AEMs were toast.
Yes! And during the Exodus, she used the kamikaze ships in several different cases. Kira had a good idea what was going on and how Ahmi planned to do what she was going to do. But even if they got to Sol space in the Oort Cloud, that is still months at top hyperspace speeds to Earth space.
Use that. Keep her talking.
Right.
"Ha, ha, ha . . ." Kira broke into laughter as best she could. "You're gonna fix the election? Luna City. You're going to crash this ship into Luna City."
"What?" Scotty laughed and looked surprised. "You're about four hundred thousand kilometers off."
Ahmi looked back and forth between the two of them. Kira noted that there was a hint of surprise from her body language. She wished she could see her face through that damned mask.
"Florida? No way. Its not important enough," Kira managed through her fat lips. "Florida won't win it for either candidate."
"Oh, you just wait and see." Scotty again laughed, a bit too cocksure of himself.
Allison. Could Florida win it for either one?
Well, there is the slimmest chance, but . . .
Ahmi doesn't take chances like that.
That is what I was thinking.
HE DOESN'T KNOW!
You must be right. Use it!
"He doesn't know, does he?" Kira laughed, not breaking her eyes from Ahmi. "Go on, tell him the whole thing. Florida is just a diversion, isn't it?"
"What is she talking about, Elle?" Scotty took his hands from his pockets and walked closer, looking directly at Ahmi with anger in his face. There was obviously some history between the two of them, and this topic must have been a sore one.
"Not now, Scotty." Ahmi waved him off. "So you have figured it out, have you?" Ahmi caressed Kira playfully. Kira was most certain that the general was off her rocker.
"Well, what I can't seem to figure out is how you plan to get this ship from the Oort Cloud to the Moon so quickly." Kira lay still, trying to look calm and trying with all her might not to react to Ahmi's touch. Each one made her skin crawl and not in a good way.
"Ah, so you don't know everything. That is good." Elle turned to the doctor. "Take the AIC."
"Yes, ma'am," the doctor nodded.
"Wait! What do you want to know?" Kira attempted to stall further.
"Nothing more from you. Without access to the QMT, you haven't been able to contact Earth. My guess is that you are completely isolated and have yet to manage a message to home. Good try, though."
The doctor held a glass tube up to the side of Kira's head just behind her right earlobe. The tube sealed off with a vacuum hiss against her skin, drawing blood to the surface it attached so harshly. A spring-loaded metal tube within the glass tube crunched through Kira's skull and extracted the bone. Kira screamed in pain and blood poured red into the tube. A little metallic finger snaked itself into the hole in the side of her head and pulled out a small gray object shaped like a sunflower seed.
"Motherfuckers! I'm gonna kill you!" Kira screamed.
Allison? Allison! Allison! There was no response.
The tube hissed, and the AIC popped out into the doctor's hand. He handed it to Ahmi, who then held it between her gloved thumb and forefinger.
"I know how you can grow attached to these things. I'm so sorry for your loss." She sat the little seed-shaped AI implant on a table in a metal pan and picked up a small hammer lying beside the pan and then smashed the little implant to a thousand pieces.